EMPEROR HADRIAN

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 69, 14 December 1935, Page 29

EMPEROR HADRIAN

Biography of a Great Roman Leader “Magnificent Hadrian,” by Sulamith Ish-Kishor. (London: Gollancz). Naturally the early Christian records of the lives of pagan emperors of Rome are apt to paint the Roman leaders in the darkest colours, so that they have frequently been accepted in history as unscrupulous and vicious. Probably a great many of them would appear so to-day, for the standard of moral behaviour has changed within the Christian era, and vices which would not be tolerated to-day were condoned and even approved by popular sentiment. Thus each Emperor must be judged by the standards of his own time in order to appreciate his comparative worth or wickedness, and recently there has been a decided fashion in reconstructing the lives of the most illustrious or infamous of the Roman emperors. In “Magnificent Hadrian” a new portrait of Publicus JElius Hadrianus is presented. He is evidently the darling of his recreator’s heart, but she is careful to have authority for any excuses she makes for his apparent lapses in conduct. One thing becomes abundantly clear —-that Hadrian was a man of peace, not from cowardice or laziness, but from conviction. In an era which worshipped military power this was amazing, and in the leadership of his peacetime army he showed genius equal to that of Julius Caesar. To keep his army out of mischief while out of military action he used their energies in building roads and fortifications. Hundreds of miles of straight roads appeared throughout the empire, and even far-away Britain was to have her monument to Hadrian in the wall which bears his name. Hadrian enjoyed building new cities or restoring old and left many evidences of his energies iu this direction.

A special section of the book deals with the emperor’s obsession for the beautiful Greek youth Antinous. In fact, these two figures' fill the whole canvas—all others arc relegated to a misty background. Hadrian alone is apparent. His loneliness is soon apparent. His mental and physical stature dwarfs those who might have shared in Ills friendship. In those days marriages were political arrangements, and Hadrian had little to do with his wife. He satisfies his craving for love and affection in his attachment for the Greek slave,

A touching study is given of Antinous. who appears to have sold his soul to Hadrian and'then found nothing to live for. His suicide in turn left Hadrian with the desire to die. Although somewhat prejudiced in favour of Hadrian, this biography is an enthralling narrative, and in face of the facts sot forth the reader is forced to admit that in many ways the pagan emperor was much more humane than the average Christian ruler of the Middle Ages.